Chinese Food
by rocket killer
Summary: Steven Universe has lead a complicated life. Being a half human half alien hybrid has forced him to consider very serious things that no child should have to worry about. After being held hostage by aliens who think that he is his mom and putting the people he loves at risk, he somehow retained most of his normal, human child innocence. Sadly, normal and him don't go together.
1. Chapter 1

It was nine o' clock in the morning in Beach City and that meant that it was time for the most important meal of the day, breakfast. Just like any other day, Steven had gotten out of his bed, rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes, and ambled his way towards the kitchen to obtain said meal. Upon opening the pantry, he was disheartened to find that the box of his favorite breakfast cereal, Marshmallow Heart-Stoppers, was empty. He smiled fondly remembering the look on Pearl's face when he had first brought the box home. It took Garnet, Amethyst, and himself to convince her that, despite the name, the cereal was not lethal, just unhealthy. Pearl didn't like it but she had eventually allowed him to eat his unhealthy breakfast. Heck, if Pearl had her way, he would only be eating fruits, vegetables, and high protein meats, like fish. Maybe Amethyst wouldn't mind if he had some of her Sugar Coated Crunchies, it was far better than eating Garnet's Raison Bland… Yuck!

After strolling to the refrigerator Steven had grabbed the gallon of milk from the shelf. He remembered how heavy the darn things used to feel when he was younger, now however they had seemed like mere child's play.

"Who's the boss now, milk?" He taunted the dairy product mercilessly bringing it up and down like a dumbbell.

Yes, he had come quite a long way since then, he was smarter, stronger, and most of all, much more mature. Suddenly, Steven had lost his footing, throwing the milk up in the air in panic and landing face first on the cold unforgiving wooden floor. The milk took this opportunity to get its vengeance and landed on the back of his head thus rupturing the container and freeing itself from its prison, exploding in all directions. After recovering from the rather humiliating defeat at the hands of both gravity and milk he sat up to look for exactly _what_ had tripped him. On the floor just a few feet from where he sat was Sir Bearington, his stuffed teddy bear that he had slept with every night since he had got it. Looking around at the rather large mess around him he could only say one thing.

"At least we know who the boss is now," he grumbled to the victorious liquid.

After cleaning up the mess in the kitchen and on his face Steven soon realized that without milk, he could not eat any cereal. The thought of eating cereal _without _milk was an absolutely disgusting nightmare. What kind of _freak _would eat dry cereal?! However he soon realized that he was in _no_ position to call _anyone_ a freak. After all he, was half alien, lived with three more aliens, had near supernatural powers, had no formal education, wore the same outfit nearly every day, had a magical pink pet lion, had temporarily turned into a female and fused into one being with his crush at the same time (and still didn't have the courage to tell her how he felt after the fact), was the only male Gem anybody had ever seen, and he wasn't even sure if he was his own mom, which he never even met. Steven had a lot on his plate at the moment, so to speak… a lot, accept breakfast.

He wandered over to the refrigerator again wondering why things always had to be so difficult for him. Why was there an empty box of cereal in the pantry to fool him? Why was Sir Bearington on the kitchen floor when he was holding the _only _gallon of milk they had? Why couldn't he just sit down and eat his breakfast in peace, or better yet not even have to eat at all like _normal _Gems? He shook away the negative thoughts buzzing around in his brain and, like usual, tried to replace them with happier ones. At least he had Sir Bearington to hug while he slept, that milk probably would have expired soon anyways, Amethyst had probably put the empty box back in the pantry when she had finished with it, and part of living with someone so awesome was dealing with her somewhat annoying habits. Not to forget that if Steven was a normal Gem, he wouldn't have such an awesome dad! Like his dear ol' dad would say to him, "if every pork-chop were perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs!"

After delving deeper in the refrigerator he found a box of Chinese food. He opened it and gave it a sniff… it smelled okay. Besides, if Pearl found out that food from a restaurant had spoiled, she probably wouldn't take him out to eat again anytime soon. She had always wanted to explain to him the importance of a balanced budget and not being wasteful, though where they had got all of their money was beyond him. As far as he knew, none of his caretakers, excluding his father, had a paying job. Well, that wasn't his problem. All he needed to worry about was breakfast, so he did. He took a seat on the Warp Pad and began to chow down on the dumplings inside the box with the included chopsticks. He was no expert with them, but he was glad that Garnet had showed him how to use them, finding a new way to eat was always fun! When he had asked her if she had traveled to China and learned how to use them while fighting an evil monster there, she had just claimed she learned how to use them through the internet. He didn't buy it though, he knew that Garnet was much cooler than that and she was just holding out on him, just like she was about her person-like animal friends. In truth, he had really wanted to meet them. The chance to make friends with animals was good, the chance to make friends with people was also good, but to do both at the same time would be awesome!

He looked back down at his Chinese food in thought. Maybe Garnet knew some awesome Chinese animal-people he could talk with. He could show them some sick tunes with his ukulele and maybe they could show him some music on… whatever they played! He picked up his trusty instrument from the base of the Warp Pad looking at it with a wild imagination. It would seem that at the moment his deepest desire was to play music for Chinese animal-people while eating dumplings. He laughed at the thoughts in his head while gripping his ukulele and dumplings. When he had finally stopped daydreaming and looked back down to his food, he noticed that both his Gem and the Warp Pad were glowing.


	2. Who Are Ju?

**Author's note: Wow, I am really surprised at the amount of support this story has received! I'd like to take the time to apologize for the short lengths of these chapters and the long wait it as been to have them published. As these come out I will try my best to have them be longer and longer. In the meantime I would like to thank everybody who commented, favorited, and followed this story, the support really means a lot to me. I love reading everybody's comments learning what they thought of the story and my writing. Without further ado, here is the second chapter of Chinese Food!**

* * *

Steven stirred letting out a pained groan. His heart was racing, he was drenched in sweat, every muscle in his body seemed to be screaming in agony, and his head was pounding as if a thousand tiny miners were chipping away at the inside of his skull. He didn't know where he was. He wanted to open his eyes but he was afraid of what he would see, he wanted to move but he was afraid his muscles would cramp up and cause him to crunch into a ball. Steven's brain just kept listing things he wished he had. He wanted the Gems to tell him what happened; he wanted his father to be with him for parental support, he wanted Lion's soft pink fur and purring rumble to feel as he hugged him… He wanted Connie to tell him he would be okay and that she would be with him. Sadly, the Gems weren't there to explain anything, his dad wasn't there to support him, instead of Lion's purring only alien sounds filled his ears, and Connie wasn't with him and he didn't know if he would be okay. He had to be the one to take charge of the situation, but how could he do that if he didn't even have the courage to open his own eyes? The Gems would be so disappointed in him, lying curled up on the ground crying, sputtering, gasping, and whimpering.

After taking a deep breath and holding it in, he opened his eyes. It hurt, the light pierced into his skull like laser beams, frying his brain. He sharply exhaled the breath he was holding and tightly shut his eyes, this time, with more tears. His body was unwilling to do anything that his mind wanted it to.

Can I open my eyes again? No. Can I get up? No. Can I wipe the tears from my eyes? No. Can I move? No. What can I do? Sleep.

Steven whimpered in fear. He remembered what happened to the people who were in his situation in the "No Home Boys" novel. On the road, when people who couldn't move, were exhausted from the pain of their own muscles and just lay on the ground, panting, sweating, gasping and sniffling they wanted to go to sleep. Steven knew all too well that they didn't wake up after that. He didn't want to end up like Garter the Boxcar Hobo whose tired old bones just couldn't carry him anymore. He, of course, cried at that part of the book and imminently ran to Garnet for comfort. This time though, it wasn't a book, it was real, happening to _him_, and he was all alone.

He willed himself to open his eyes again, what he saw unnerved him. He was in a seemingly endless maze of bamboo. The height that the each chute grew intimidated him as they seemed to dwarf and surround him, the sheer number of them seemed to suffocate him. With careful motion and calculated motions he managed to get back on his feet, the soreness in his muscles and aching in his head were slowly but surely ebbing away. After taking more through examinations of his surroundings he noticed that the western side had more intense light seeping between the vegetation. Maybe it was a way out? He slowly began to hobble over to what he thought was the way out until his foot kicked a hollow wooden object. Looking down he saw the bright pink design of his ukulele lying on the ground completely undamaged, what luck! He carefully picked it up and wrapped the strap around his shoulder feeling a little less nervous about the situation.

* * *

After getting through the last of the chutes immensely thick bamboo forest Steven found himself at the top of a rather steep hill. Below, was a small little village bustling with life and noise; he couldn't see what the people in detail, only obscure outlines. Maybe he could ask for directions?

"Hey… kid!" A feminine voice called out interrupting his thoughts.

Steven looked around until he located the source of the voice and wasn't prepared for what he saw. A tall, well tall to him, bipedal lynx with sapphire eyes and a slender nearly whip-like tail stood before him. Her fur was dirty and unkempt and she wore several layers of material that looked like they were made for holding potatoes instead of covering up.

"H-hi…" Steven replied with a small wave trying his best to put on a friendly face despite how confused he was.

"Listen kid-"

"Steven."

"Huh?"

"My name's Steven, what's yours?" He asked with smile on his face looking directly into her eyes with pure sincerity.

She visibly shrunk back and her face tightened up, he sure wasn't making her job easier. She was about to open her mouth again before she noticed that he wasn't looking at her eyes anymore but a little higher up.

"W-what are you looking at?" Shem snarled with an irritated and slightly unsettled flick of her ear.

"Your ears, I've never seen anything like them, well I have but not… I like them they're pretty cool, I wish my ears were like that."

This wasn't even close to what she was supposed to be doing and she defiantly didn't want to make it last longer than it had to but she felt inclined to ask a single curious question.

"Why?"

"Your ears can turn and move, mine can't and they also have that really cool radar shape if I had your ears I could hear really well and look cool, I could be radar Steven!" He proceeded to spread his arms out straight and waddle around in a circle without bending his knees, letting out the occasional _bing_ or _beep_.

Surprisingly, she had to cover her muzzle to hide a small smile creeping on her face. She wasn't entirely sure what a radar was but if he was using it with admiration than it couldn't be that bad. When she had come to… do her job with Steven, she sure hadn't expected an introduction, compliment, and a silly dance.

"Oh, sorry about that, so um, what's your name again?" He asked looking up at her again with an innocent and friendly smile.

She really didn't want to tell him her name. She looked at him again, she hadn't seen anybody who looked like him before aside from a monkey, which he obviously wasn't. Whatever he was, he hadn't shown the slightest amount of animosity towards her. He didn't make fun of her raggedy clothes, was polite and happy, even when she was curt and caustic with him. He even gave her a compliment, even if it was a weird one. Whatever he was, he was a sweet little guy that just radiated joy and fun. She couldn't bring herself to mug him, even if it would anger the bandits. She decided to use a fake name to protect both herself and Steven.

"My name is Ju," She lied beginning to bow.

"Well, it's nice to meet you Ju," Steven interrupted the bow as he took her paw and shook it in a firm handshake or in this case, pawshake.

This gesture confused her greatly.


End file.
